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A Weekly Recap & Thoughts

I'm a day late, and life my father says... a dollar short.

So we won't even slightly call this a High Five for Friday - it's more like a Praise the good Lord it's Spring Break Saturday!

1. Coconut water isn't one of my favorite flavors, it kind of tastes like body odor. As in, men playing basketball outdoors in the dead of summer and someone managed to capture and sell their sweat nasty. I do like how hydrating it is though, I probably don't get enough water, or any liquid for that matter, in a day and I like to do what I can to not intentionally dehydrate myself. Insert Zico Chocolate Coconut Water, the stuff is heaven sent. It's better than chocolate milk, but I hate milk, so it's just a really good chocolate drink.

2. Grilling, it's grilling season. Therefore I probably smell like a grill 90% of the time from here until it gets too cold and I start baking everything... which will be for about 1 week in January every year. What's your favorite grilling recipes? I'm probably about to send Jeremy into a grilled chicken rut, if he starts to grow feathers you'll know why.

3. It's starting to show that Ellie is creeping on 8 this year, the sister just doesn't want to walk anymore. My plan is to make another batch of dog treats and carry them with me while we walk. This is technically the opposite of the Biggest Loser program, but if I have to feed you while you workout to get you to workout then that's what we'll do. I was laughing at her this week, it was either Monday or Tuesday and we had yet another awful thunder storm, as soon as I got home she decided she had to be directly on top of me for comfort. We sat like that for at least two episodes of The Real Housewives of somewhere.

Yes, I like that horrible show. Don't judge:)

4. Easter is upon us in a major way, and it has swooped in and single handedly hijacked any sense of motivation I had to not eat junk. It all went downhill Thursday, but today I will do better. By better I mean pre plan every meal I will eat for the next several days and put them in convenient baggies so no one can tempt me with anything. Puerto Rico is too close for comfort, I will weigh what I weighed before we moved here if it kills me. Or if Jeremy develops a hate for chicken before then.

5. I got my Influenster VoxBox in this week from Sargento to try out their new Ultra Thin Slices, if ever there were a lactose intolerant blogger to send cheese to this is it! All I can think about is sandwiches, wraps, and standing in the fridge at midnight snacking on cheese slices. Who doesn't love free cheese?

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With all the fuss over the American Blogger movie, which I didn't notice until yesterday I started thinking about how I fit in that category. The main backlash I am reading is that the spectrum of bloggers they interviewed wasn't broad enough, and that the bloggers who they chose are slightly "plastic."

After thinking about what category I fit into I realized, Louisiana Bride has become slightly "plastic," or at least more so than it was in the beginning. Then again, blogging has changed over the past 6 years. I once unloaded all my emotions into a post, sometimes I still do, but then it was super raw. I started holding back when I became a teacher for fear of kids and parents tracking me down. There isn't anything here incriminating about me, I just wanted to keep my private life separate. In the beginning my last name was all over the blog, now I've done my best to remove it.

The other day I was filling out a form for PopSugar Select and really was hesitant to put my last name in the last name blank, but I didn't want to be Emily B. either. Jeremy actually encouraged to put my name on it, I'm not doing anything to get myself in trouble, so why hide so much. If students find me, they find me, the problem is only when teachers interact back.

As far as crazy open emotional posts, you probably won't get that on the spectrum I guess people want. I'm not going to air our dirty laundry here, it's isn't fair. Jeremy doesn't have a voice here. Anything said is simply one sided. Plus who would care if we disagreed about something. I've seen a lot of bloggers end up having major marital problems due to the over sharing of private information. Heck, I've even gone so far over the years as to not put our friends on the blog a whole lot. It's not my place to share pictures of them, their kids, or their lives on the Internet.

I'm just here to share mine. My life, my struggles, my stories, and all the stuff I force Jeremy to eat. By being more private than I was in the early days I'm not being plastic, I've just grown up and realized just when it isn't my place. I was very tempted to not share about my Dad's cancer, because it isn't my cancer, but it became something that I had to write about to help me. Writing some of those raw emotional posts are a type of therapy for me. That's why you won't see them often.

What I'm saying here is this, I view myself as an "American Blogger" but it doesn't hurt my feelings that I wasn't included. Let's be real, if you're fussing about it it's because on some level you wish you were included. I have a small group of blog friends, if Jeremy ever took to filming them you'd probably wonder why they were all majority brunette, female, and posting about food all the time.

You gravitate to who you are like.

I didn't start today's post with any intent to talk about it, but here we are. All up in my mind, no Pinterest, no food, no reviews - just Emily's brain.

Then again, maybe I'm not as much of a "put out the pretty" blogger as I was accusing myself of being.